The CIA is denying it, folks, so it can't be true.

Well, there goes that conspiracy theory!

Yes, people online have been wondering if Thomas Crooks was part of some CIA mind control operation like MKUltra, but the CIA has laid the idea to rest for good by denying the claims.

Was the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump earlier this month part of a secret CIA program involving brainwashed killers? That's the claim being made by some far-right accounts on X, but the U.S. intelligence agency is taking the unusual step of directly and forcefully denying the claims …

The CIA, for its part, decided to push back very publicly against these claims, something the agency doesn't often do when weird conspiracy theories are floating around on the internet.

‘These claims are utterly false, absurd, and damaging,' a CIA spokesperson told Gizmodo on Thursday. ‘The CIA had no relationship whatsoever with Thomas Crooks. Regarding MKULTRA, the CIA's program was shut down more than 40 years ago, and declassified information about the program is publicly available on CIA.gov.'

Yeah, uhh, the internet had some thoughts:

I mean, if the CIA said they didn't brainwash the Trump shooter, I'm pretty sure we should trust them that they didn't brainwash the Trump shooter

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